Zurich Spots - Degenried Restaurant

A nice Zurich excursion is the area up by the famous hotel Dolder. With views and nice walks to offer, its a very good choice for a stop on a sunny Saturday like the one we just had.

Me and <3 drove up for some lunch and a walk before my yoga class. There is a little lovely swiss restaurant on Degenriederweg, indeed named Degenried (www.degenried.ch), that's definitely worth your time. I picked the Degenried salad with Parmesan, dried ham, pine nuts and dried apricots, a good pick! Yummy bread and yummy dressing too.

Strawberry Orange Juice

For a saturday morning, its perfect with a break from juicing (and in our house, its also important to have something that matches with our weekend treat - fresh croissants from the bakery downstairs).

To match the sunshine I tried strawberry mixed with classic orange. Success!

Yumminess

Restaurant La Salle in Hardbrucke in Zurich is my and <3's favorite and we have clearly decided to save the visits there: its only for special occasions. Like anniversaries.

They have a starter that I just have to order each time Im there: Scallops with avocado and mango.
Pure perfection. When its still too long to the next visit, I have tried to recreate it at home, which actually was not too far off from the yummy original.

For 2 you can use:

8 scallops
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar

1 avocado
1 mango
Some green leafs
1 lime

Simply sear the scallops 1-2 minutes per side (that's actually the only part that actually is not super simple as they need to be perfect).

Finely chop avocado and mango and blend together with some sea salt and fresh black pepper to taste. Add a splash of lime, and if you are in the mood, some fresh red chili and/or cilantro.

Split over 2 nice plates (this is my Mateus beauty I got for my 30th birthday) and top with the scallops and a drizzle of creme de balsamico.

Kitchen Love

Classic Green

Ten points for juicing this week! This is another one of my green creations to kickstart the day. 

You'll need ( for 2) 

3 handfulls of spinach

1 large piece of ginger 

1 lemon 

2 green apples

1 carrot 

Cut up - juice - serve and wake up!

Juice love 

Simple and beautiful

Does eating (or life) get any better than this ? Simplicity meets flavour perfection and summer!

This is not so much a recipe as a reminder of how amazing a caprese salad can be. But. There are so many variations of this classic out there that defiantly not is worth my attention. There is a lovely quote by Nigella Lawson along the lines of "the thought of wasting a meal on something I don't want to eat is to horrible for me to even consider". This can sometimes be the case for this dish. Sour tomatoes and rubbery mozzarella.

My version is slightly better.

For 2:

Carefully split a dozen or so of cherry tomatoes. Good ones. Put them on a beautiful plate (Important) and gently pull a part 3-4 pieces of buffalo mozzarella (the better the cheese, the better the dish). Add beautiful leafs of fresh fragrant basil. Sprinkle with your best olive oil, balsamic vinegar, sea salt (Fleur du Sel is yummy) and freshly grounded black pepper. If you made it all with love it will be one of the nicest things you'll eat all summer.

Kitchen greetings

Sunshine Juice

The battle between my double personality of gourmet baker  and veggie-loving yogi continues. During the weekdays I try my best to stay to the later one. A part of that plan is to move all the creativity I want to spend baking to create other and more heathy things....like juicing!

My number one trick when it comes to actually using you juicer is very simple. Give it a place on your kitchen counter. I have even moved away my Nespresso maker in order to make space! 

Yesterday I made a sweet and yummy creation to match the lovely weather - Sunshine Juice!

You'll need: 

3 large handfulls of spinach 

2 apples (I picked sweet and red ones) 

1 handful of blueberries

1 large carrot

Half a lemon 

Instructions (do you need them?): Put all ingredients through your juicer and enjoy immediately!

Vegan Vanilla Rasppberry Cupcakes

Oh dear, you can tell you have not been blogging in a while when you simply cant think of a better headline than "Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes"! But thats indeed what I did bake this evening, actually for the simple reason that I did not have anything else to do... Cold and raining Zurich.

So for these little yummy bakes, please follow these basic steps and you are in happy baking bliss...even its only monday!

1. Mix 1 cup of flour with 1/2 cup of sugar, 2 tea spoons of baking soda and a pinch of salt. 
2. Add 2/3 cup of soy milk (or milk product of choice), 1/3 cup of natural oil, 1 table spoon of pure vanilla extract and half a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar. 
3. Mix together until no lumps.
4. Top with 3-5 fresh raspberries
5. Prepare 8-10 cupcake forms and fill each with 2/3 of the batter. 
6. Bake in 180 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Set to cool and frost as desired. Lemon would be my pick!